Parents of British boy with brain tumour appear in court

The parents of a British boy taken out of hospital in Britain without medical consent appeared before a Spanish judge on Monday for an extradition hearing.

01.09.2014

A Police van carrying the parents of Ashya King, the five-year-old British boy with a brain tumour who was taken from hospital without medical consent, arrive at the courthouse in Madrid on September 1, 2014. Police issued a European arrest warrant for Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, after they drove their son away from a hospital in Southampton in southern England on August 28, 2014. Ashya has been found in Velez Malaga, southern Spain with his parents, who have been arrested on August 30. AFP PHOTO/ JAVIER SORIANO

(AFP) The parents of a British boy taken out of hospital in Britain without medical consent appeared before a Spanish judge on Monday for an extradition hearing.

Brett and Naghemeh King were arrested at the weekend in southern Spain on a European arrest warrant after they removed their son Ashya King, who has a brain tumour, from a southern England hospital barely a week after he had undergone surgery.

The couple were taken to court in a police van on Monday morning, but their hearing was delayed until the early afternoon after their lawyer failed to appear in time.

Their five-year-old son requires feeding through a nasal tube and a machine, and authorities feared his life could be in danger if he was not given the necessary hospital care.

After a two day manhunt involving British, French and Spanish police, the family was found on Saturday at a guesthouse on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.

King said in a video posted on YouTube that he pulled his son out of hospital because he was not satisfied with the care the boy was receiving.

He said he wanted to seek different treatments abroad that were not offered by the British public healthcare system.

In another video posted on YouTube, Ashya's brother, Naveed King, defended his parents, saying the family had bought all the necessary medical supplies to ensure his brother would receive the same treatment as he had in hospital.

On Monday, the child's grandmother, Patricia King, criticised the decision to pursue and then arrest, the couple.

Ashya, who last underwent surgery seven days ago, is currently under police guard in a hospital in Malaga where his condition is said to be "stable".

His parents have not been allowed to see him and his grandmother said that it was an "absolute disgrace" that a sick child was alone in hospital.

"They (the authorities) are the ones who are cruel because they have taken poor little Ashya, who is dying of a brain tumour, and they won't let the parents, my son and daughter-in-law... they won't let them see him at all," she said.